I now have pretty much all of it working. The 2005.0 cd (amd64 universal) booted without any problems. Did a stage 3 and installed the 2.6.12-r4 kernel.

Network (the nforce one), sata ctrl., sensors, onboard sound works.

Nvidia driver works using the 7174 version.
Cool'n'Quiet/powernow-k8 would 'Ooops' the kernel. There is a patch from AMD for the 2.6.12-r6 that will fix the problem, so ondemand freq. scaling now works. The patch can also be applied to the 2.6.12-r4 kernel

The only thing not working yet is the bootsplash. I just get a black screen until I start X.

All in all, a relatively easy install, only the Cool'n'Quiet gave some problems - I suspect the bootsplash in something I overlooked.

I'm thinking about going the dual-core route whenever Intel gets their act together, and I'm wondering what stuff you had to do in the kernel to get both cores working (besides enabling SMP). How do you know both cores are working? Is there some way you can tell the kernel is distributing procs evenly?

I also have an X2 4200+ on an MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum. I have been running Fedora Core 4 but I have to boot the SMP kernel with noapic to get it to boot.

I have used the Gentoo Universal 2005.0 cd to compile kernel 2.6.12-r6. It also will only boot with noapic. Otherwise I get the same error I had on Fedora about an invalid bios APIC entry. I am using bios 1.7B2.

kim_it, or anyone else, what bios version are you using and what did you do to get gentoo to boot without the noapic setting?

Here's what I'm using to bootup, I'm 2.6.13-rc1 and haven't felt like upgrading the kernel since I got everything working just right. I've got some odd options in there, since I needed them to keep my system clock from running too fast. I'm on the DFI SLI board.

I'm thinking about going the dual-core route whenever Intel gets their act together, and I'm wondering what stuff you had to do in the kernel to get both cores working (besides enabling SMP). How do you know both cores are working? Is there some way you can tell the kernel is distributing procs evenly?

2007 then, seriously the marking droids did a really good job of screwing intels product line.

as for monitoring cpu usage well even top will tell you the load on each cpu, you can even bind apps to specific cpus if you feel like it.

Yes, and I've tried both 1.4 and 1.1 settings. The only post I have found anywhere with someone using this board with dual core working under linux is kim_it, and I'm wondering if he actually checked that both cores are operating.

Yes, and I've tried both 1.4 and 1.1 settings. The only post I have found anywhere with someone using this board with dual core working under linux is kim_it, and I'm wondering if he actually checked that both cores are operating.

Hi DOScott

I'm using the same board as you (MSI Neo4 Platinium) with an Athlon 64 X2 4400+, but I don't have this BIOS bug. Which BIOS version are you using? I've flashed the version 1.5 before installing gentoo.

Yes, and I've tried both 1.4 and 1.1 settings. The only post I have found anywhere with someone using this board with dual core working under linux is kim_it, and I'm wondering if he actually checked that both cores are operating.

Actually I used the neo4 sli with the same settings that I'm using on the DFI, and yes both cores were detected and loads were distributed between them. I just swapped boards at my work since the DFI's been better for overclocking._________________"we should make it a law that all geeks have dates" - Linus

Yes, and I've tried both 1.4 and 1.1 settings. The only post I have found anywhere with someone using this board with dual core working under linux is kim_it, and I'm wondering if he actually checked that both cores are operating.

kim_it, thank you very much for posting that info. Our bios blocks were so different I knew it had to be something there.

When I flash I always use the 'don't overwrite' bootblock flag to keep from killing the board. So I flashed again without it. When I rebooted I went back into the bios, and the Enable IOAPIC option was on and couldn't be changed - which I thought must be a good sign.

Now I have both core's running.

Again, thanks to everyone that contributed to getting this figured out.

I would, except I kind of hijacked this topic and don't have access to the title

No problem
May I go a bit more offtopic? Maybe I should open a new thread, but here a short question. Is it possible to flash the BIOS directly from linux? I've always to use a floppy drive somewhere with a bootable MS-DOS floppy disk and this sucks. I cannot believe there is no other solution. How do you flash your BIOS?